Imliss get out of the city while we figure out what's going on - tell us where we are and we'll come meet you -

She sends him her current location and planned route out of the city.

And he picks up Idaia and goes.

A minute later it somehow gets darker. The stars go out. The Elves cannot even see heat.

Do you know if everyone got out?

No. Going to head back in and check, Huan can still smell. You two stay here. You're probably safer without me anyway, if he's targeting specific people.

Assuming that fucking with your dad was the only thing he intended to accomplish stirring shit about our species, anyway...

Huan doesn't think he'd be able to do anything. Go. Keep moving.

I love you, she says desperately, and they go.

Love you.

He can't make it back to the city anyway. The darkness settles on them like a thick, choking mire, and it's hard to move at all and impossible to guess which direction you are moving in, and he can hear the roar of walls crumbling, can hear - briefly - the clash of swords, and then silence.

Everyone check in, Maitimo says, quite steadily. 

Imliss and I are here. Wherever here is, we've sorta lost track.

I do not think the King left our house.

Imliss sends an emotional response which would naively be translated as some sort of concise, firm profanity like "fuck" except that fuck isn't strong enough and neither are any of the swear words in any of the three languages she speaks.

It's still absolute, heatless dark. They start crawling. Everyone else checks in.

Thoughts on how bad an idea it would be to try to create magical light?

Let's not risk that it'd catch his attention, unless you can do it at a great distance and without an obvious origin...

Great distance yes, without obvious origin no.

Just stay still and quiet, then, I think, at least until we're sure he's gone - Huan -

Huan thinks he's heading north and out of here, Tyelcormo says, and Tulkas and Orome are pursuing him.

Much good as I'm sure that'll do.

Hey, first time they've even tried. 

Well, maybe I'm being unjustly pessimistic. I certainly hope so.

The darkness lifts, in the sense that they can once again see the heat of each others' bodies, once again see the stars.

Probably safe to try magical light now.

Well the twins still can't see heat but those twinkly sky-lights are pretty damn reassuring under the circumstances.

Let there be light.

Formenos is a pile of rubble. Finer-grained rubble, as you get closer to the center of the city. The palace itself is mostly standing. The King's body is smeared across its front steps. 

Tyelcormo falls to his knees, shaking silently. Maitimo's crying.